Folklore Database · Browse
Berezkin/Duvakin Catalogue of Motifs
English translation, enhancements and additional metadata by Jonathan Fielder-White
Source: Berezkin and Duvakin's Analytical Catalogue · Original catalogue (Russian)
About the catalogue and its sources
Unless otherwise stated, narrative and tradition data comes from Berezkin and Duvakin's Thematic classification and distribution of folklore and mythological motifs by area (Analytical catalogue).
Original Berezkin/Duvakin catalogue (Russian)
The English translation uses AI assistance alongside manual verification. Errors may occur; consult the original source when in doubt.
All motif categories
| Ref | Title | Summary | Traditions | Narratives ▲ |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| I8c In I8 family | Suspended Earth. | The earth is prevented from falling or swaying because it is tied with ropes. | 33 | 39 |
| J9 | Children from their mother's womb show her the way. | Even before they are born, children speak from their mother's womb, showing her the way. | 20 | 39 |
| K24a In K24 family | A supernatural man hides a woman's clothes. | A man, usually of non-human nature, hides the clothes or sits on the clothes of an ordinary earthly girl. To get her clothes back, she is forced to enter into a romantic relationship with him. Traditions in which the character is a snake or dragon (ATU 425M) are marked with an asterisk*. | 36 | 39 |
| K27x1 In K27 family | The invisible servant ("Bring me that, I don't know what"), (ATU 465A). | Having received a difficult task (usually: to bring an object or creature that has no specific characteristics, such as "something, I don't know what," "a strange wonder," etc.), the hero meets an invisible man who serves others; he is kind to him, and the man becomes his assistant. (This motif is certainly present in some texts of the ATU 465A plot, but it is not specifically highlighted in the definition). (Cf. motif K131B). | 28 | 39 |
| k27z2a2 In k27 family | The unrecognised wife visits her husband, ATU 891. | The husband leaves his wife without agreeing with her. The wife visits her husband incognito, and in the end he realises who is with him. Usually, the wife spends the night with her husband, gives birth to a son (three children), and the husband is convinced that the son is his. | 42 | 39 |
| K56f In K56 family | The division of the rooster, ATU 1533. | A man divides a roasted rooster (goose) according to the social ranks of those present (the head to the host, the wings to the daughters, etc.), usually taking the least prestigious but meatiest part for himself. | 33 | 39 |
| K59 | Osiris's chest. | One person places another in a box and closes the lid, or ties the other to a board, a boat, etc., and throws them into the water. The coffin (box, board) is nailed to a distant land, where the captive is freed. Usually, he returns and takes revenge on his enemy. | 30 | 39 |
| K66a In K66 family | The flying ship as a condition of marriage, ATU 513B. | The princess (inheritance) is given to the one who builds (obtains) a ship capable of moving on land (flying through the air). | 40 | 39 |
| K73a1 In K73 family | The child is replaced by an inanimate object. | After hiding or discarding a newborn baby, the woman's rivals replace it with an inanimate object and/or inform the father that his wife has given birth to a stone, a broom, etc. See motifs k73a2, k73a2a, k73a3. | 26 | 39 |
| K77b2 In K77 family | Weapons of the goat. | The goat (goat, ram, etc.) responds to the predator's questions in the sense that parts of its body are weapons and other objects designed to kill the questioner, or that the goat is actually armed. | 26 | 39 |
| L103b In L103 family | Animals carry away from the demon, (ATU 314A*). | A girl (boy, children) falls into the hands of a demonic creature. An animal or bird offers to carry her away and runs off. Usually, animals of different species do this, but only the last one manages to escape pursuit. | 19 | 39 |
| M119 | Shown repeatedly, ATU 37. | A character repeatedly shows another person the same object or creature; the other person believes that there are as many objects or creatures as the character has shown them. Usually, the character takes care of the other person's young, eats them or they die due to his negligence, or he is hired as a shepherd and eats the other person's livestock. When checked, he shows the parent (the owner of the herd) the same un-eaten young (or the same sheep), and the parent believes that all the young (animals) are safe. In ATU, this is plot 37, but two other plots are included as variants, and the sources are indicated for all three collectively. | 33 | 39 |
| M122 | Advisors inside. | In a difficult situation, the character asks for advice from his tail, penis, or some creatures in his stomach (these are excrement, intestinal parasites, his "sisters," etc.). | 33 | 39 |
| M141b In M141 family | Animals flee from the end of the world, ATU 20C. | An insignificant event (a falling leaf, acorn, etc.) is taken by an animal as the beginning of a catastrophe (the end of the world, war, the falling of the sky, etc.) and it flees. Other animals join the fleeing animal. | 44 | 39 |
| M173a In M173 family | Returning for the second boot (ATU 1525D). | A character throws one of a pair of objects onto the path of another. The traveller passes by, but when the deceiver throws the second object, he leaves his belongings and returns for the first. At this time, the deceiver steals the belongings. | 38 | 39 |
| M29a1 In M29 family | Raven(s) - main trickster | In three or more different episodes related to deception, absurd, obscene or anti-social behavior the protagonist is raven (crow) | 37 | 39 |
| M30b In M30 family | Birds take the feathers they have given | Birds give a non-flying or ugly character feathers so that he can fly or become beautiful, but then take them away. | 30 | 39 |
| M43 | Bait figure | To kill or catch a monster, he sees a figure made of wood or clay or a living person. Most often, a monster's claws or sharp leg get stuck when they pierce a tree. | 31 | 39 |
| M75b1a In M75 family | Intended wife, ATU 930A | A high-ranking person finds out that a (just born) poor or ugly girl is intended for him, or the girl herself finds out that she is destined to become a man's wife of high origin. A betrothed or someone else tries to kill a girl, but only hurts her and the prediction is fulfilled; if the girl is ugly, she becomes beautiful. | 33 | 39 |
| M9 | Trapped in a hollow | The character puts his head or hand in a hollow or (rarely) another hole), gets stuck in it, or falls into a hollow. Usually, as a result, the character dies or undergoes a metamorphosis. | 30 | 39 |
| M90a4 In M90 family | The jewel tree | A tree is described on which jewelry or ornaments hang instead of fruits; individual parts of the tree are made of different metals or (semi) precious stones. | 33 | 39 |
| N1 | Origins: when Altai was the size of a bump | The fabulous and epic texts start from the beginning, which states that today's huge objects were tiny at the time. | 14 | 39 |
| A2a1 In A2 family | The moon shone like the sun. | At first, the moon was as bright and hot as the sun. | 28 | 40 |
| B16 | Salt water: bodily secretions, A1115. | The water of the sea, rivers, etc. comes from the fluid that flows from the body of a living being, or is contaminated by it; therefore, it is salty or opaque. | 34 | 40 |
| B3d In B3 family | Worm excrement. | The earth is obtained by a worm; it arises from worm excrement, extracted from the worm. | 18 | 40 |
| B77a In B77 family | The giant pushed back the sky. | One or more anthropomorphic characters push the sky away from the earth. See motif B77. | 52 | 40 |
| C18 | Luring the sun. | A character embodying or controlling the sun hides or is hidden. In order to restore or obtain light and warmth for the first time, the character's attention is attracted or distracted by songs, music, dances, unusual gifts, indecent or strange behaviour, offers of sex, food and/or alcohol. | 25 | 40 |
| C31 | The wise hedgehog (cosmology). | The hedgehog is wiser or more cunning than all the gods and animals; it possesses knowledge that is vital for human existence. | 23 | 40 |
| C6c3 In C6 family | The loon – a successful diver. | The loon dives and brings back a piece of earth (grass, etc.), which turns into land (it is the only or the only successful diver). | 23 | 40 |
| D6a In D6 family | Crocodile and fire. | The crocodile/caiman is the temporary or original owner of fire or lightning. | 19 | 40 |
| F14A In F14 family | Birth from stone. | An anthropomorphic character emerges from stone. | 18 | 40 |
| F20 | Lovers stuck together. | After copulation, the man and woman are unable to break their embrace. | 40 | 40 |
| F5b In F5 family | Artificial bride. | The character (listed in square brackets in the list of ethnic groups) offers another woman. Not having one or not wanting to give her away, he makes a bride out of wood, snow, etc., turns an animal into a girl, sends a servant instead of his daughter, turns himself into a woman, or confesses to the lie when the trouble is over. See motif E8. | 26 | 40 |
| G31 | Trees tied with rope. | A character ties trees with rope and effortlessly knocks them all down at once or pretends to do so. | 35 | 40 |
| H19 | The raven interferes with hunting. | The raven hides game animals in a pen or cave or scares them away from hunters. See motif H18. | 29 | 40 |
| H1c In H1 family | Trampled grave. | People cease to be reborn (or no longer come to the living) after the deceased is buried in the ground for the first time or someone tramples the earth on a fresh grave, preventing the deceased from rising from the grave. | 36 | 40 |
| H49 | The slain dog sought to save the child, Th B524.1.4.1; B221.2.2; ATU 178A. | A dog or other animal kills a creature that threatened a small child. The owner or other people mistake the saviour for an aggressor and kill it. | 47 | 40 |
| I47 | The rainbow as a stream of secretions. | The rainbow smells disgusting, is associated with foul-smelling animals, is a stream of excretions, is associated with the lower body, causes inflammation or skin diseases, and is associated with death. | 42 | 40 |
| J5 | Brothers as victims. | The role of the victim is played by two or more brothers (friends). See motif J4. | 32 | 40 |
| J50 | Attempt to resurrect the dead. | The father or mother of twin heroes dies or is killed. An attempt to revive the deceased fails. | 36 | 40 |
| J59a In J59 family | Flight after the arrow, D1092, D1526.1. | After shooting an arrow (rarely: throwing a ball), a person flies on it, behind it or in front of it, or sends another person on the flying arrow. Cf. motif J59. | 42 | 40 |
| K57a In K57 family | The Beauty from the Land of Soap, (ATU 510B). | A noble young man, who treated a lowly servant girl rudely and contemptuously, does not recognise her in the guise of a magnificent beauty and does not understand her hints about the relevant episodes. Or the younger brother responds to the hints of his older brothers after they first beat him and then fail to recognise him in the guise of a handsome hero. | 20 | 40 |
| K8c5 In K8 family | The bear dies after swallowing a mouse. | A zoomorphic character no larger than a fox allows itself to be swallowed by a bear and kills it by tearing it apart from the inside. | 33 | 40 |
| L5f In L5 family | The good skull. | Head, face or skull – a woman's husband, fiancé or son; not dangerous to her, brings wealth, saves from hunger, etc. | 35 | 40 |
| L65d In L65 family | The younger sister of the cannibal. | When the older sister becomes a cannibal, the younger sister (temporarily) escapes. Cf. motifs L1B, L65C. | 34 | 40 |
| M154b In M154 family | Husband performs his wife's work, ATU 1408. | The husband (rarely: son) stays at home instead of his wife (mother), but does everything poorly and ineptly. | 56 | 40 |
| N28a In N28 family | The roots of mountain | The roots (belt) of mountains or stones are mentioned in myths, riddles, spells, and songs as something that does not really exist. | 29 | 40 |
| A11b In A11 family | One-eyed luminaries. | The sun or moon has one eye (usually the second eye is knocked out or sucked out, but sometimes the reason is not explained; among the Munduruku, the sun of the rainy season has lost both eyes, while the sun of the dry season has retained both). See motif 11A. | 33 | 41 |
| C1 | Falling sky. | In the past, a catastrophic shift in the layers of the universe occurred or will occur in the future. Among the variants (sometimes combined): the sky fell to the earth; the present earth or underground world swapped places with the sky; the earth turned upside down; it fell into the underworld; the layers of the universe successively collapsed onto the earth or will swap places in the future. | 28 | 41 |
| C33a In C33 family | The restored chain. | Throughout the year, someone tries to saw through or break the chain or rope that holds him or another character. On a certain day of the year, when the chain has become completely thin, it is restored to its former state, or the pole to which the chain is attached is reinserted into the ground. Cf. motif G8d. | 27 | 41 |
Tradition and narrative counts are the stored catalogue totals for each entry.